


the antithetical problem

by ofstormsandwolves



Series: parallel lives [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday, F/M, Post-Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 13:11:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11510130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofstormsandwolves/pseuds/ofstormsandwolves
Summary: A jump made a few seconds too late changes everything for the Doctor, Rose, Pete, and Jackie.





	the antithetical problem

As Rose Tyler found herself hurtling towards the Void, there was a brief flicker in her mind that this was it. No way back. After only a few days had passed since promising the Doctor forever, and after only four months of being in a proper relationship, it would all be snatched away.

And that was worst of all; the fact they’d got so little time together before they were torn apart. But before she could dwell on the situation any longer, she’d twisted in the air, somehow turning to face the Void. But it wasn’t the blinding light, or the gaping nothingness she saw. It was...  
Pete.

Pete was there, arms out, ready to catch her, dimension hopper in hand.

No.

She couldn’t leave the Doctor, couldn’t leave him on his own-

But the suction was dying down, there were no more Daleks or Cybermen barrelling through the room, and the wall almost seemed like it was folding in on itself behind Pete...

Rose thudded into the man, sending the pair of them careening backward toward the Void... But instead they hit a solid wall.

The pair of Tylers slid to the floor, both more than a little dazed, and moments later the Doctor was dashing across the room towards them.

“Alright?” he asked, hauling Rose off of Pete and pulling her close as he looked down at the man.

Pete just blinked, then stared at his hopper. 

“It’s stopped working,” he said, almost unnecessarily. “You’ve closed the breach.” 

The Doctor swallowed, watched the man carefully. “I’m sorry, Pete.”

Rose just blinked at the two men, her mind still trying to play catch up as she got her breath back from the near-death experience. “But my mum,” she managed after a moment. “You told her to go with you, to the other universe.”

She was staring wide-eyed at Pete, and he just looked up at her sadly.

“She went to another world for you,” she continued, and things were starting to slot into place in her brain. “But she’s stuck there, and you’re here...”

“It wasn’t meant to happen,” Pete protested weakly. “I came back for you. I didn’t expect to get stuck here.”

The Doctor’s arm tightened around Rose’s waist. “Twenty seconds sooner and neither of you would be here,” he told them. “If you’d arrived sooner, if Rose had fallen sooner...” He let out a sigh. “The breach was already closing when you jumped, Pete. It’s why you weren’t pulled into the Void the moment you appeared.”

“So that’s it,” Pete said hollowly from where he was still sat on the floor. “I’m stuck here and Jackie’s there.”

There was a hollow silence that filled the lever room then, tense and thick in the air, the three occupants of the room not knowing what else there was to say.

“We should get back to the TARDIS,” the Doctor said finally, squeezing Rose’s waist gently. “This place will be swarming with UNIT officers soon, and I don’t fancy sticking around for the paperwork.”

Pete got to his feet a little reluctantly, and allowed the Doctor and Rose to lead him from the room. All the power from earlier had left him; the man who the Doctor had met once again in the parallel world was gone, and had left an uncertain and lost person in its wake. He was a powerless man, who had nothing but the clothes on his back, a sort-of-daughter, and her alien partner.

Somewhere, deep in the time vortex, a new timeline snapped into place.

~0~0~

Pete was silent as he entered the TARDIS. He’d been silent the whole way through Torchwood Tower, too, but the fact that he merely glanced around the control room was more than a little worrying for the Doctor.

“You alright there, Pete?” he asked with a frown as he began to start the dematerialisation sequence.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Pete responded, forcing a tight-lipped smile as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

Rose watched the two men carefully. “Doctor,” she said softly after a moment, “is there a spare room we can offer Dad- Pete- for the night? It’s been a long day, an’ we can sort everything in the morning, yeah?”

The Doctor surveyed her carefully, stepping back slightly from the console now they were safe in the vortex. Rose was looking more than a little exhausted, now the adrenaline was wearing off and the events of the day were catching up with her.

“Yeah,” he said after a moment, before turning to look at Pete. “That’s alright with you, isn’t it, Pete? You can sleep here for the night, then we’ll start sorting everything tomorrow morning.”

Pete shrugged. “Whatever you suggest, Doctor,” he said, tone neutral. “You’re the one in charge on this world.”

There was a slight bitterness in Pete’s tone, and it suddenly clicked in the Doctor’s head.

( _“But I’ve got to get back right now,” the Doctor had told Pete.  
Pete had stepped forward, hands in pockets, an air of confidence, and a smirk that made the Doctor frown. “No,” he’d said, and he sounded a little smug, “you’re not in charge here. This is our world, not yours. And you’re going to listen for once.”_ )

“Pete, I am sorry about what’s happened today, I really am. But there’s nothing we can do right now, not with all of us so tired. Rose is right, it’s been a long day, and we could all do with the rest. Me included, and I don’t often admit to that.”

Pete’s shoulders slumped, but he nodded. “Sorry,” he said, and he sounded a little embarrassed. “Just didn’t exactly expect this to be how the day would go when I got up this morning.”

The Doctor glanced at Rose, who had been silent during the exchange. “You and us both,” he murmured, before raising his voice. “I can show you to the galley, if you like. You can get yourself something to eat.”

But Pete shook his head, giving them a weak smile.

“No,” he said. “If it’s all the same to you, I think I’d rather go to bed.”

They led Pete through the TARDIS towards the bedrooms, Rose and the Doctor hand in hand and Pete following behind them. Every once in a while Rose would glance over her shoulder, blinking at the man like she expected him to have disappeared, or to have faded away into nothing.

“Sorry it’s not much,” Rose told him apologetically when they reached one of the plain guest bedrooms the TARDIS had to offer.

“It’s fine,” Pete said, smiling at her before taking another look at the room. It was like a hotel room. A posh hotel room, but still a hotel room; neutral colours, generic pictures on the walls, a muted colour scheme.

“We could have put you in Rose’s old room, but you don’t seem like a pink guy,” the Doctor told the man with a small smirk.

Pete smirked back. “No,” Pete agreed, “it might suit my daughter, but it’s not my cup of tea.”

Rose blinked at that, and a glance at the Doctor’s face told her he was just as surprised by Pete’s choice of words. Apparently seeing their surprise, Pete grimaced.

“Sorry,” he told Rose, “just sort of slipped out. I know you’re not... Technically my daughter, but...” He trailed off and shrugged, uncertain.

But Rose gave him a soft smile. “Don’t worry about it,” she assured him gently. And then, a little uncertain, she stepped forward and pressed a kiss to Pete’s cheek. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Pete echoed as Rose stepped away again.

The Doctor gave Pete a small smile, and then he and Rose were making their way down the corridor to their own bedroom.

~0~0~

“What do we do about Mum’s flat?”

The Doctor blinked, and looked round from where he was searching through his drawers for a clean pair of pyjama bottoms.

“Rose, don’t you think that should wait until morning?” he asked with a small frown.

She pursed her lips, eyes downcast, and she picked at a loose thread on their duvet cover. “But I can’t stop thinking about it. I can’t stop thinking about how Mum’s all alone there, an’ how we’re gonna have to do something about the flat before the council come and clear it out. An’ we’re gonna have to tell Bev, and cousin Mo, and all Mum’s friends on the estate!” Her shoulders sagged, and when she looked up again the Doctor wasn’t surprised to see tears welling in her eyes. “I’m just so tired, and I really want to just wake up tomorrow and find out all this was a dream, but it won’t be, will it?”

The Doctor sighed, and within moments he was sat on their bed, hugging Rose to him as she sobbed into his chest.

“You need to sleep,” he told her gently, smoothing her hair back from her face. “We can deal with all that in the morning, when you’ve had a rest and are feeling a little more up to it. Or, we can stay in the vortex for a little while, let you have a few days if you want.”

Rose sniffled against his shirt. “But we’re gonna have to face it sooner or later.”

“Yes,” the Time Lord agreed softly, “but we don’t need to do it right now. Come on, finish getting changed, and then we can get into bed.”

Rose pulled away from him a little then, blinking up at him. “You sleeping tonight, then? Not going to tinker?”

“I could do with the rest,” the Doctor admitted slowly, “particularly after the day we’ve had. Besides, I don’t think either of us want to be apart right now, do we?”

Unbidden, the memory of falling toward the void sprang forth in Rose’s mind. She bit her lip and shook her head.

“Didn’t think so,” the Doctor said, smiling slightly. “Go on, finish getting changed.”

They changed the rest of their clothes in silence, and when they both climbed into their respective sides of the bed, they sought each other immediately.

“That storm you said you could feel,” Rose mumbled against his chest, “was that today?”

The Doctor hummed an affirmative, and Rose felt him squeeze her waist gently.

“It’s passed now, though,” he murmured into her hair. “We survived it.”

“We rode out the storm,” Rose agreed softly.

They remained tangled in each other’s arms, awake in the dark for hours.

~0~0~

When Rose awoke the next morning, she was alone in bed. But the Doctor’s side was still warm, so she knew he couldn’t have been gone long. She slipped on her dressing gown and headed for the galley, following the smell of cooking bacon and coffee.

Upon reaching the door, she saw that both the Doctor and Pete were already there, and she gave Pete a slightly shy smile as she padded into the room.

“I was just telling your dad,” the Doctor said as Rose took a seat at the table, “that what we end up doing today was up to you.”

Rose blinked at him. Pete hadn’t said anything about being referred to as her dad, so she supposed he must be fine with it. And while it was certainly odd for her, she wasn’t against it, either. After all, just yesterday he’d been ready to accept Jackie as his wife; why not Rose as his daughter?

“Well, we’ve got to sort Mum’s flat,” Rose reminded the Doctor slowly. “I don’t want to leave it too long, or the council might move in and chuck all of Mum’s stuff out.”

The Doctor frowned. “Rose, sweetheart, we’ve got a time machine. I’ve told you, we can leave it for a few days.”

Rose sighed and shrugged. “I know, but I’m not sure I want to... I dunno, it seems like we’d be dragging it out unnecessarily. You said yourself, there’s no way back. I’d rather just get it over with.”

There was a long silence then, as the Doctor and Rose stared at one another. Clearly the Doctor expected her to back down, Pete realised, and clearly Rose wasn’t going to.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit soon, love?” Pete interrupted gently after several long seconds. “How about we have breakfast first, and then talk about it?”

Rose blinked, before turning to Pete, one eyebrow raised and her expression suggesting she was not the slightest bit impressed with his suggestion. The man blinked, swallowed, and turned to the Doctor.

“She looks just like her mum when she does that.”

The Doctor grimaced. “Tell me about it.”

“I am still in the room, you know,” Rose interrupted them sharply. “An’ I know you both think that it would be the right thing for me to wait, that you think it’s too soon, but sitting around in the TARDIS isn’t going to change the fact that she’s gone. It doesn’t matter whether we clear out Mum’s flat today, or next week, or next month, or next year, it’s still gonna hurt! And I’d rather get it done and out of the way. I don’t want it... Lingering over me!”

Pete and the Doctor shared a look at that, before finally, the Doctor shifted and sighed.

“After you’ve had breakfast, then,” he said softly. “I’ll go set the coordinates.”

And with that, he left the room.

~0~0~

The estate was eerily quiet when Rose stared out her old bedroom window. They’d arrived at just gone 8:30 am local time, and parked the TARDIS in the middle of the now-abandoned flat. Pete had stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, staring around at the familiar-yet-strange flat, and Rose had immediately taken a breath and headed for her old room.

It wasn’t even like she had that much to pack from there; when her mum had redecorated the room back before Christmas, she’d packed most of Rose’s old things into boxes and had stacked them in the hallway cupboard. But Rose had felt the need to venture into her old room one last time, to say goodbye to it. Get closure, maybe.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been leaning against the bed staring out the window, but after some time she became aware of a presence lingering in the doorway. She sighed, and forced a small smile at the Doctor.

“You alright?” he asked, hands in pockets as he slowly made his way inside the room.

She nodded, and gave him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Yeah.” Then she stared over the Doctor’s shoulder, and frowned. “Where’s Pete?”

“He’s packing up your mum’s pictures and things in the front room,” the Doctor told her, an arm going around her shoulders to pull her in for a hug. “Wanted to make himself useful.”

There was a long pause then, as Rose buried her nose in the Doctor’s shoulder and breathed in his scent, trying to force back the tears that were threatening to fall.

“We don’t have to do this right now, love,” the Doctor murmured against her hair.

Rose let out another deep sigh, and pulled away. “I want to, though,” she told him softly. “I need to... I need to get this over with.”

The Doctor nodded, though concern was evident in his eyes.

“Can you... Can you help me go through the stuff in Mum’s room?” 

Her voice was soft, bordering on anxious, and the Doctor reached down to thread his fingers through hers and squeeze her hand in his.

“I’ll go grab some packing boxes.”

~0~0~

In the end they decided to leave most of Jackie’s things. Rose hadn’t really wanted to deal with sorting through her mum’s clothes, taking them down to charity shops and inevitably bumping into people they knew. Pete had suggested that they leave the rest of the place for the council to clear, only taking things that Rose actually wanted to keep and save.

So the Doctor and Rose packed up jewellery, knickknacks, and photo albums from Jackie’s bedroom into clear plastic storage boxes, and the Doctor took them to the TARDIS while Rose had one final look around her mum’s bedroom. He and Pete had rescued Rose’s old possessions from the hallway cupboard an hour or so before, and had hauled boxes of CDs, cuddly toys, clothes, magazines, and photos back to the TARDIS for Rose to do as she pleased with them later on. 

But it was when the Doctor disappeared into the kitchen to clear through some of the items they’d gifted Jackie (including the grainy photo of Rose’s Fortuna statue in the British Museum, and the ‘I love New New York’ mug they’d bought her) that Rose found Pete staring at the photos on the mantelpiece. 

He’d cleared the rest of the room of knickknacks and photos, but had seemingly got distracted by the few photos of Rose that Jackie had always kept above the fireplace.

“Alright?” Rose asked softly, startling Pete.

He blinked, and smiled a little guiltily. “Sorry,” he told her, reaching to add the photo of a three year old Rose to the box of other photographs, “got a little distracted.”

Rose smiled slightly at him. “‘S alright,” she told him quietly. “It’s fine. Shoulda realised that those photos are new to you. Guess I’ve just got used to always seeing them.”

Pete smiled slightly and continued putting the rest of the photos in the box.

“What are you planning to do?” Rose asked suddenly. “Are you gonna stay on the TARDIS, or did you want to get a place somewhere?”

The man shifted a little uncomfortably at that. “Well,” he admitted slowly after a moment, “hadn’t really given it much thought. Don’t have any money, either.”

“You can stay on the TARDIS as long as you need,” Rose countered quickly, “the Doctor and I don’t mind. I just... Wondered.”

Pete nodded slowly then. “I think I’d rather settle down somewhere, if you don’t mind,” he said slowly. “You and the Doctor will want your own privacy. You’ve been together how long? A few months?”

Rose blinked, and nodded. “Four months,” she told him, a little surprised.

Pete gave her a grin at that. “Don’t want your old Dad hanging around then, do you? So yes, I’ll be moving out. But I think I still need a little while to get my head around everything, you know. Work out what I’m meant to do.”

Rose smiled, a more genuine smile than the small one she’d given him a few minutes previously. “That’s fine, Dad. And the Doctor would be happy to help.”

“Help with what?” The Doctor was in the kitchen doorway then, a small box filled with the few things he’d had to rescue from Jackie’s kitchen.

Rose spared a brief look at Pete before turning to her partner. “Dad was saying that in a little while he’ll be looking to get out of the TARDIS, maybe get his own place. I said you could help him with money and stuff.”

“And you’re always welcome to visit. The pair of you,” Pete chipped in.

The Doctor nodded, flashing the other man a grin. “Where were you thinking? Earth, or somewhere else? What year?”

Pete blinked, and turned to Rose for help at that.

“Doctor, I think Dad was looking to stick close to his timeline,” Rose explained slowly. “So whatever year it was in the other universe. An’ I don’t think he’s gonna want to move planets.”

The Doctor shrugged at that. “The suggestion’s there if you want it, Pete,” he told the other man. He then made his way back into the TARDIS.

~0~0~

By lunchtime they’d cleared Jackie’s flat. Both the men had given Rose some time to say goodbye to her childhood home, but she hadn’t stayed in the flat alone for long. Instead, she’d been in there for all of a few minutes, before returning to the TARDIS for a hug from first the Doctor, and then Pete, before they entered the vortex to relax.

It was then decided that the Doctor would fix them all some lunch and Rose would take Pete to the media room where they could spend the rest of the day relaxing.

“You called me Dad,” Pete said softly on their walk to the media room.

Rose stiffened slightly at the words, remembering another time, another man, when she’d heard the same words from the same man’s lips. It felt like a lifetime ago.

“Is that alright?” Rose asked after a small stretch of silence. “I mean, you called yourself my dad first.”

Pete smiled slightly at that. “I did,” he agreed. “Just thought maybe it was too soon for you. Today and yesterday have been tough on you, and I don’t want you to feel any obligation. If it’s too much, too soon, you can always just call me Pete.”

Rose studied him for a few moments before leading him round a corner in the hallway and continuing their walk towards the media room. 

“I think it depends what comes out of my mouth half the time,” she admitted after a moment. “If I think it feels right to just call you Pete, that’s what I’ll call you. If I feel like calling you Dad, I will.”

Pete grinned at that. “Perfectly fine with me,” he told her happily. 

Rose couldn’t help but grin back, and she was still grinning as she led him into the media room a minute or so later. She and Pete took seats on opposite sofas and chatted aimlessly while flicking through the thousands of channels the TV had to offer, waiting for the Doctor to arrive with lunch.

When the Time Lord did arrive, some twenty minutes after them, they ate and chatted and watched telly until Rose could feel her eyes growing heavy.

“She didn’t sleep well last night,” she heard the Doctor explain to her dad quietly. 

“Hopefully she’ll sleep better tonight,” came her dad’s response. “Now that the flat’s been dealt with, it’s one less thing for her to worry about.”

They continued talking then, but Rose found a fog was lifting over her, shrouding her from the conversation as she finally gave way to sleep.

~0~0~

By the time a month had passed since the battle at Canary Wharf, Pete was still on the TARDIS, Rose still wasn’t sleeping well, and most of Jackie’s friends and family had been informed of the woman’s ‘death’. Really, Pete and the Doctor should have realised that clearing Jackie’s flat wasn’t the hardest part by far; oh no, that was telling the likes of Bev, and Debbie, and cousin Mo that Jackie was no longer around. There’d been questions, accusations, loud shouting and hysteria, and Rose had clung to the Doctor’s hand throughout.

Pete had had to sit all that out, though, tucked up in the TARDIS. While he and Rose had grown closer in the month since he’d inadvertently traded universes, it wouldn’t do for people to see the supposedly-dead-for-twenty-years Pete Tyler up and wandering around the estate. He’d heard all about the horrific meetings with Jackie’s friends and family through the Doctor, though, and he felt virtually helpless that the only support he could offer his grieving daughter was a kiss on the forehead and a tight hug.

But all the stress of dealing with the aftermath of Jackie’s disappearance was still taking its toll on Rose, leaving her tossing and turning in bed at night, and exhausted during the day. She’d had a persistent nausea that had just set in a day before meeting with Bev for the first time (though the Doctor said he always felt nauseous at the prospect of meeting with Bev), and both men were starting to suspect that what Rose needed from the whole situation was closure.

They’d expected her to get that from clearing out Jackie’s flat, but then Bev and Mo and numerous others had started with the questions, and any closure Rose had got from emptying the flat had been ripped back open, a barely-healed wound with the scab ripped back off.

It hadn’t helped that they’d had to enter Jackie’s name on the list of the dead, either. Pete had suggested it might stop the questions, might mean that Jackie’s friends realised not to press Rose too much, but with many of Jackie’s loud friends it had had the opposite effect.

“They’ve always been like that,” Rose sighed when she and the Doctor had headed back from the pub where they’d met Bev and Debbie and a few others that Jackie had been friends with. “Mum used to joke that they were too loud for their own good. They think before they speak, an’ they’re even worse once they’ve got alcohol in them.”

The Doctor squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry. Your dad and I had thought that maybe it would quieten them, if they thought Jackie had died. That it might make them a bit more respectful. Evidently we got that wrong.”

“Just a bit,” Rose agreed with a small smile. “They mean well, though. An’ all their questions are driving me mad, but it’s only ‘cause they care about Mum.”

The Doctor sniffed at that. “But they’re making you ill. You’re still not sleeping very well at night, and you’re always exhausted during the day because of it. And I know you still keep getting a bit nauseous.”

But Rose shrugged it off. “It’s only been a month, Doctor. I’ll be fine, I just need a little more time.”

The Doctor frowned at her then, and watched her for a long while as they continued their walk back to the TARDIS.

“Your dad and I think you need closure,” he said when they were almost at the TARDIS doors.

Rose stopped suddenly, and blinked up at her partner. “I’m fine.”

“Rose, you’re not fine. And it’s alright to be not fine,” the Doctor told her gently. “But they’re might be a way to help you, to give you some closure-”

“I’m not havin’ a funeral for her!” Rose snapped, mind suddenly flashing back to when cousin Mo had suggested it a few days before. “Mum’s not dead, I’m not doing that!”

But the Doctor held his hands up in a placating gesture. “I’m not suggesting that, Rose. But there might be a way for you... For you to say goodbye to Jackie. To see her, one last time.”

Rose stared at him, wide-eyed and barely breathing. Then she’d grabbed his hand and was dragging him inside the TARDIS.

~0~0~

It would take a little while to find enough energy to send a message through to the other universe, but Pete and the Doctor had already done some work on it and had found a suitable crack between worlds. They’d wanted to find that first, to make sure the idea was possible, before suggesting it to Rose.

Even so, there was still a lot of work to be done, and when Rose had eagerly agreed to the idea, the Doctor threw himself into his research, to find a way to send the message across the Void, contact Jackie just one last time, give both Tyler women some closure.

And it was because of the Doctor throwing himself into his research that, at just before two months since the battle at Canary Wharf, a terrifying thought hit Rose when she was alone in bed. She was wide awake in an instant, the TARDIS raising the lights for her as she stumbled to the bathroom.

No. She had to be mistaken.

She threw open the cupboard beneath the sink of the bathroom she and the Doctor shared. The shelves were packed with shampoo, shower gel, razors, the Doctor’s hair gel, her tampons...

Oh.

Her tampons, which she knew she’d bought just over two months ago in anticipation for her next period, still sealed in their box.

The horrible thought began to take root in her mind. She’d been right, Rose realised. She was late.

She’d never been amazingly regular, even as a teenager, and travelling in the TARDIS had seemed to have made her schedule go even more wrong. But she should have had at least one period, she realised, since losing Jackie. Maybe it was the stress of the situation? Maybe it was losing her mum and gaining her dad, and fighting Daleks and Cybermen, and nearly tumbling into the Void. Maybe it was Debbie, and Bev, and cousin Mo all nagging about Jackie, maybe it was clearing out her mum’s flat and knowing she’d never go back there.

Or maybe, Rose finally allowed herself to consider as nausea rose in her throat, she was pregnant.

She could only assume the TARDIS had sensed her distress, because when she finally forced her gaze away from the unopened box of tampons, there was a slim white box waiting on the bathroom counter for her. A pregnancy test.

Rose picked it up, swallowed, looked to the door. The Doctor was still working on trying to find out how to contact her mum, that would keep him occupied all night, and even if Pete wasn’t asleep he’d never enter hers and the Doctor’s room without knocking.

Decision made, she slammed the lock across on the bathroom door, sat on the toilet and ripped open the pregnancy test kit.

~0~0~

Rose Tyler hadn’t slept. She’d paced the hallways of the TARDIS for a while, before the sentient ship had guided her into a room. She’d almost sobbed when she’d seen the interior; a perfect replica of her mum’s old flat. She’d dropped onto the sofa, curled up against the cushions, and swallowed back the fear that had lodged in her throat.

And she’d remained that way until the Doctor had found her that morning.

“Rose! There you are- Oh...” he trailed off at the sight of the room, eyes wide as he took it all in.

Rose just blinked at him from where she still lay on the sofa. “What time is it?” she asked him softly.

“Just gone eight,” he told her gently, and crossed the room to kneel beside the sofa. “Did you sleep last night?”

She shook her head, and he sighed.

“I think I might know why, though,” she admitted after a moment. She wouldn’t meet his eyes, even as she wound their fingers together. “An’ it’s not just ‘cause of Mum, though I don’t think that helps.”

“Is that the reason you’re in here?” the Doctor asked, pointedly looking around the room. “Because of whatever it is that’s the matter?”

Rose shrugged. “Suppose so. The TARDIS guided me in here. She must’ve used all the trinkets and stuff we collected from Mum’s flat.” She pointed at the line of photos on the mantelpiece.

There was a silence then, and the Doctor gently stroked his thumb across the back of Rose’s hand, repeating the motion as he felt Rose relax slightly.

“I didn’t realise until last night,” she spoke finally, her voice soft, almost a murmur. “I was almost asleep, an’ it just clicked in my head. It’s been almost two months since we lost Mum, an’ in all that time I’ve not had a period.”

The Doctor stiffened at her words, eyes on her face as she stared at their joined hands instead.

“It’s been a stressful few weeks,” he said after a few moments. “It could just be stress, love. Nothing to worry about.”

“I thought that too,” she mumbled in response. “But the TARDIS gave me a pregnancy test.”

He swallowed. “And what... What did it say?”

Rose was silent, still staring at their hands, and he could feel that she’d tensed again.

“It said I was pregnant. Ten weeks.”

There was a heavy silence then, and Rose was suddenly aware of the Doctor squeezing her hand hard. He was angry, angry that she’d fallen pregnant, angry that she’d ruined the life they had together, angry that-

He hugged her tight to his chest, squeezing her tight.

She blinked. He wasn’t angry. He was... She pulled away, blinked at his face, at the huge grin, at the way his eyes were wide with wonder and slightly damp. He was happy.

“You’re... You’re not mad?” she managed to gasp out, still trying to wrap her head around the situation.

His brow furrowed momentarily, but he seemed too happy to frown for long. “Mad? Why would I be mad, love? We’re having a baby!”

Rose blinked at him again.

His face fell. “Don’t you want it?”

“I... It’s all a bit much to get my head around,” she admitted slowly. “I mean, like you said, these last few weeks have been...” She trailed off, couldn’t find the words. “And it’s not that I don’t want this baby- it’s half you, Doctor, I wouldn’t want to give that up for anything, I promised you forever-, but we’ve only been properly together for about six months, and now Mum’s gone, and it just seems like there’s loads happening all at once.”

The Doctor nodded in understanding then. “It’s alright to feel a little overwhelmed, Rose,” he assured her gently as he pressed a kiss to her brow. “But just know, I don’t want to put you through anything you don’t want.”

“I do want it,” Rose insisted against his chest. “I do. Just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.” There was another pause, and then something hit Rose like a tonne of bricks. “Oh my god!” She jerked away from the Doctor, stared at him with wide eyes. “We’re gonna have to tell my dad!”

~0~0~

In the end, Pete took the news surprisingly well. He shook the Doctor’s hand, and pressed a kiss to Rose’s forehead, grinning all the while.

“Guess this means you’ll be wanting me out?” he asked with a wry grin. “Don’t want your dad hanging around now, do you?”

“We’re not chucking you out, Dad,” Rose insisted, wide-eyed and a little worried her new-found Dad would think they were throwing him out. “You can still stay as long as you want.”

The Doctor was nodding furiously at her side, but Pete merely gave them a smile.

“Nah,” he told them, “time I got back to living in the real world. Once we’ve sorted out that gap between universes, made it so you can speak to your mum, I should look at getting my own place.” 

He paused then, maybe because it had just hit him that that was his last chance to see Jackie, too, or maybe it was because he was with Rose when she was going to have a baby, and Jackie was in an entirely different world, never able to see her grandbaby, and it was all his fault...

“Anyway,” Pete forced out suddenly, forcing another grin, “that doesn’t mean I’m saying goodbye to either of you, or my grandchild. I will expect you to visit!”

The Doctor smiled at that, eyes on Rose as he spoke. “Oh, we will. Knowing Rose, we’ll be visiting every other week.”

“Good,” Pete told them. “I want to see you keeping my daughter and grandbaby safe, Doctor.” There was an air of humour in his tone, but a look in his eyes that told the Time Lord that, despite the light tone, he was deadly serious.

The Doctor met Pete’s gaze steadily, gave him a small nod. “I will,” he assured the other man calmly. And then, like a switch had been thrown, the Doctor was bounding around the console, already speaking and pressing buttons and flipping levers, leaving the two Tylers blinking at him. “Now! We need to get back to work, Pete! Got to tell Jackie about the baby, and if we leave it too long I have no doubt she’ll find a way to slap me, even from a whole other universe away!”

Pete and Rose shared a look, and Rose just shrugged before turning her attention back to her Time Lord.

~0~0~

In the end, it took another two weeks before they could find something with enough power to send a message through the Void. But finally the day came, for them to send a message to Jackie, for Rose to see her mum just one last time.

They were orbiting a supernova, burning up a sun so that Rose could say goodbye to Jackie for the final time. As the Doctor made the final adjustments on the monitor, and used his own telepathy to draw Jackie to wear the gap was so that they could talk face-to-face (or, as close as they could get), Rose pressed a hand to her stomach, trying to quell the nausea. She’d never really worked out if the nausea was a symptom of her pregnancy, or if it really had been brought on by the stress of losing her mum. Either way, it was back with a vengeance, and Rose had struggled to even eat breakfast that morning.

“You might want to keep your hand away from your tummy until after you tell your mum the news,” Pete told her with a small smile, watching her from the other side of the control room.

“You’re probably right,” Rose managed with a small smile. “She’ll still flip, but I don’t want to make it too obvious.”

Pete nodded in understanding. “She’d spot it a mile away,” he said, crossing the room and pulling his daughter into a hug. “You’re her little girl, she’s going to notice, love.”

Rose didn’t say anything, and instead just leaned into Pete’s embrace. The universe had been cruel, she’d decided several weeks ago. Horrifically cruel. She’d lost her mum but gained her dad, discovered she was pregnant with a child who would never know its grandma, had been forced to lie to friends and family, and mourned one parent whose parallel counterpart she now called ‘dad’ and another parent who was alive and kicking (most likely angrily) in another universe.

When had her life got so complicated?

A hand on her shoulder then, and a murmur against her ear. The Doctor. Rose smiled despite herself. That was when things had got complicated, she knew, when she’d ran off with a big-eared alien in a blue box, and he’d turned her life upside down. Sometimes for the better, if her new dad and the life growing inside her womb was anything to go by.

But sometimes, sometimes for the worse.

Rose took a breath, and turned to look at her partner.

“It’s ready, love,” the Doctor told her gently. “Your mum’s coming.”

Rose nodded, reluctantly pulling away from Pete and smoothing her shirt down. She could do this.

~0~0~

“Where are you?”

“Inside the TARDIS,” Rose responded, managing a weak smile. “There’s one little gap in the universe left, just about to close, and Dad and the Doctor found it. It takes a lot of power to send a projection through, so they spent weeks trying to find a power source big enough.” She took a breath. “We’re in orbit around a supernova, Mum. We’re... We’re burning up a sun just to say goodbye.”

“You look like ghosts,” Jackie told them, almost accusingly.

Rose looked to the Doctor, and he responded only by pointing his sonic screwdriver at the console.

“Is that better?” he asked Jackie.

She nodded, but still didn’t look too happy. It was odd, Rose decided, seeing this hologram of her mum in the TARDIS. Her hair was being blown about by wind, wind that was a whole other universe away and in no danger of touching the occupants of the TARDIS. Sand was beneath Jackie’s feet, but wouldn’t seep through the grating, and there were birds flying overhead that, as they passed over Jackie, vanished from sight.

“Can I-” Jackie was asking, arm outstretched towards Rose.

But the Doctor was speaking before she could finish. “We’re just an image, Jackie. No touch.” He paused. “I’m sorry.”

Something in Jackie softened, then. “Don’t be, sweetheart. You did what you said you’d do. You got me and Rose out safe.” She paused. “Wasn’t exactly how I imagined it, but you kept your promise.”

Rose looked to the Doctor in confusion then. She’d not been around for that conversation, hadn’t been aware of the conversation her partner and her mother had had without her.

“Can’t you come through properly, or something? Is this it?” Jackie asked suddenly, sounding like she knew the answer already, but the hope in her eyes said she’d been holding on.

“We can’t, Jaqs,” Pete spoke up calmly. “Two universes would collapse. I’m sorry, love.”

Jackie bit her lip, staring at the man she thought she’d be starting a fresh life with. Slowly, she nodded.

“So this is goodbye,” she concluded after a moment. “You could’ve got a bit closer, though! Back of beyond, bloody Norway! Some place called Darlig Ulv Stranden. Even the Sat Nav had trouble finding it.”

But Rose and the Doctor weren’t listening.

“Did you say ‘Dalek’? Jackie?” the Doctor asked urgently, eyes wide as he and Rose shared a look.

“What?” Jackie frowned. “No, you plum. Darlig. About fifty miles outside of Bergen. Like I said, back of beyond. Anyway, Mickey said it’s Norwegian, for ‘bad’, or something. Said this place translates as Bad Wolf Bay.” She looked at Rose, frowning a little more. “How long have we got?”

Rose turned to ask the Doctor, but he was already speaking. “Two minutes.”

“Is that it?” Rose asked him, wide-eyed and pained.

“I’m sorry, love,” he responded quietly, “but I did say we didn’t have long.”  
Jackie sniffed, then, drawing the attention back to her. “I was right, then. You two are together.”

“Yeah,” Rose agreed slowly, before spotting something far in the background, barely visible in the hologram that was being projected onto the TARDIS. “Is that Mickey?”

“Changin’ the subject, I see,” Jackie said, with a small smile. She looked to Pete. “She gets that from you.” She turned back to Rose. “But yeah, it’s Mickey. I said he should come talk to you, but he said it should just be me.”

“And are you settling in alright?” Pete asked suddenly. “You can have the mansion and everything. Legally, it would be yours anyway.”

Jackie blinked slowly at him at that, apparently for once not having an answer. “You’ll keep an eye on these two for me, then?” she asked him after a long moment. “God knows they need keeping an eye on, and I can’t do it anymore.”

Pete gave her a soft smile at that. “I will, Jaqs. I promise. And I’m sorry, for all this.”

Before Jackie could respond, Rose was speaking up. “There is one thing, Mum. You know the Doctor and I are together, an’ Dad’s definitely gonna be sticking around, so you don’t have to worry about me. ‘Cause there’s me an’ the Doctor, and Dad...” She took a breath. “And the baby.”

And in that horrific split second, the acceptance that had slowly been creeping across Jackie’s face shattered. No more did she look like a woman who would accept that she was trapped in another universe, no longer did she look like she could cope with the separation from her daughter. Instead, there was devastation, cold and terrifying, and Rose was scrabbling for the Doctor’s hand.

“You’re... You’re pregnant?” Jackie managed to gasp out.

“Three months gone. Only found out about two weeks ago,” the Doctor explained, pulling Rose into his side and holding her close. “I’m sorry, Jackie. If there was a way...”

“Just promise me this,” Jackie interrupted quickly, eyes and tone sharp. “Keep them safe. Rose and my grandbaby. Keep them safe.”

The Doctor nodded, just the once, face impassive. “You have my word.”

She gave him a nod back, and turned to Pete. “And you sure as hell better keep an eye on our little girl, Pete Tyler. That baby’s gonna need at least one grandparent, and it’s pretty obvious it’s not going to be me now. Promise you’ll be there for them?”

“Of course I will,” Pete responded quickly, and the conviction in his tone made Rose blink and smile at him.

Jackie let out a breath then, nodding slowly. “Good. I love you sweetheart, you know that, right? And you’re still my little girl, don’t forget that.”

Rose nodded, opening her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, she buried her face in the Doctor’s chest.

“Jackie,” Pete spoke up suddenly, pulling the attention back to him, “I know this isn’t what you expected, and I am still so sorry for what’s happened, but I’d do it again. If I was in the same situation, I’d do it again. Because you’re right, Rose _is_ my daughter, and I see that now, and I’m so sorry I took that from you.” He paused. “But if it’s my last chance to say it, Jackie Tyler-”

And the connection blinked out of existence.


End file.
